A Sound of Thunder and Rain
by ArielBrennan
Summary: A big storm catches New York by suprise, but not as much as the case that follows it. Will this hard hitting case be the push they need to lay it all out on the table and just jump into it together? My first Castle fic, post-Season 3. Rated M for language and future situations. Totally a Caskett fic!
1. Chapter 1

_**A/N: Hello! I hope y'all with love and enhoy this small little fic as much as I enjoyed writing it! I have been writing fan fiction for a while now, but this is my first endevour into the Castle fandom and the Caskett ship! I love them and the show and hope this little story does it justice! So tell me what you think and I will update it soon! Enjoy!**_

A Sound of Thunder and Rain

It had been a long week. A lot longer than usual for one of their murder cases. Besides the big storm that surprised New York with copious amounts of rain and thunder and lightning. A twelve-year-old boy was found stabbed to death on a cold, wet night in an alley in the Bronx. No apparent reason except maybe gang violence. However, as more evidence was uncovered, the bruising to the chest that matched as fists and possibly a baseball bat that Lanie discovered during the autopsy, a small plastic bag of cocaine powder in the kid's stomach, and a former juvenile record that Ryan and Esposito uncovered, just pointed to nothing more than a hit on a rival gang member. But why a kid? He was probably a drug mule for one of the five families in New York, he was twelve… What twelve year old gets beaten and stabbed to death on a cold, dark, and stormy night in New York City? That was Beckett and Castle's job. Help the dead, get justice for a silenced voice.

It wasn't easy, the older brothers that took care of the boy wouldn't talk, he didn't go to school, and none of the neighbors in the surrounding buildings saw or heard a thing.

_Maybe a body drop_? Beckett wondered. _No… there was blood and signs of a struggle on the victim's hands that matched particulates to a dumpster and a patch of asphalt in the alley_. Castle looks over, seeing Beckett struggle with the theories before offering his own silent suggestion, _If the brothers aren't talking- who are also in the gang- maybe it was an inside job_? Beckett read his theory on his face and gave a slight shrug to the possibility. _Maybe the kid was involved with the police, possible snitching led to elimination of the rat_? Beckett bounced back. _Most likely because he was just a kid, a cop or agent persuaded him to give up info since his brothers were in the gang, he could've seen something_! Beckett nodded quickly and began calling the gang task force to see if the kid was an informant while Castle leaned back into his chair with a sigh.

Ryan and Esposito watched from across the precinct at their desks of the interaction between the detective and honorary partner.

"That's always gets creepier every time they do that," Esposito shook his head with a sigh.

"Yeah. Whenever they bounce back theory nowadays they get even quieter and just stare at each other more and read minds." Ryan agreed, leaning his arms on his desk, watching Beckett rely information from the phone to Castle to put on the murder board.

"Do you think they know?" Esposito craned his neck back to look at his best friend.

"I know they do, they just haven't said it or talk about it." Ryan sighed at how clueless their friends were.

"Seriously. Lanie keeps calling me every few days from the morgue asking if they are together yet or not," Esposito chuckled, "She's getting tired of them coming into the morgue for the body and watching them stare at each other when they think the other isn't looking."

"Maybe this will change it. They always gravitate closer on hard cases." Ryan agreed.

"We'll see." Esposito looked back at them before an incoming call caught his attention.

This continued for the next few days, the brothers finally talked and agreed that their little brother was in the gang against their wishes, but what he did for the gang , they weren't sure. They knew he dealt drugs and smuggled them occasionally, but recently he had been running with the higher commanding officers of the gang and did private errands for them. They guess he probably talked to the cops and it got him killed. Getting to the gang runners was not easy; Beckett and Castle had to chase one through the pouring rain and gusting wind and ended up tackling him into a huge puddle of water. After a change of clothes from her cruiser, they grilled his ass in interrogation, Castle getting more and more frustrated as the member tried to run him in circles. Eventually, Beckett made him leave before he had a chance to pummel the guy, Castle stormed off to the break room and lay out on the couch, closing his eyes and trying to let the pounding rain soothe the anger within his mind. _He was a child_! _If that ever happened to Alexis_? He shuttered and screamed in his mind to stop, _this wasn't Alexis, and it will never be Alexis_. He took a few deep breathes to calm his panicking mind, settling with giving Alexis a big hug when he gets home. He was finally able to relax enough to take a small nap before he woke to Beckett gently rubbing his arm and holding out a cup of coffee.

"Thanks." He mumbled, sitting up and taking a sip of the hot liquid.

"You could have cost us the case in there you know?" Beckett said quietly, not irritated but concerned.

"I know and I'm sorry. Just… he was a _kid_. He didn't deserve to die like that in an alley all alone." Castle breathed out sharply, sitting back into the couch, Beckett slowly sitting down next to him.

"I know. But this is just one of the leaders, there are two more. One of them will break; we just got to find the weak spot alright?" Beckett encouraged, touching his shoulder in understanding, she could tell that his mind had wandered to all the wrong places, "I want to get this horrible son of a bitch just as badly as you." Castle dropped his head back on the couch and stared at the ceiling.

"I'm tired." He sighed, the sleeplessness of the past three days catching up to him.

"Well the storm is still raging outside. Wanna lift?" Beckett offered, deciding she needed the rest too if they were going to solve the case. She hadn't seen him this upset in a long time, not since he started looking into her mother's case, them saving the city from the dirty bomb, or even her getting shot at Montgomery's funeral. That's why she was comforting him, the coffee, the light touches, she noticed he did the same things for her when a case hit too close. This was one of those times and they needed a break.

"Thanks." He muttered before getting up and following her to the parking garage. She took him home before returning to her place and quickly falling into a dreamless sleep. Thankfully, a call from CSU didn't arrived until about seven and she dragged herself back to the precinct after giving a call to Castle that they had more evidence, a hair sample, it was one of the brothers.

_**A/N: Okay so far? Drop me a line and stay tuned!**_


	2. Chapter 2

_**A/N: Sorry this would have been up sooner but I've had a crazy week. But never fear, the next chapter is here! Thank you for all the reviews so far, I hope you guys are finding this interesting, and enjoy!**_

Castle came running into the precinct half an hour later, shaking the rain from his hair while setting down a coffee on Beckett's desk.

"Hey! You're getting water on me!" She chuckled before wiping the stray drops from her face.

"Sorry, had to make a mad dash from the street to the door. It's still pouring buckets out there!" He joked, glad to see a smile grace her face for the first time during this hellacious case.

She shook her head before standing to look at the murder board, "CSU discovered a hair on the victim's jacket, from the shape it was in it looked like it was pulled from the root," Beckett pointed to a microscopic picture of the hair. They thought it was the victim's at first due to the DNA being so similar to his, but there were a few irregularities. Suggesting that it wasn't his, but was someone related to him. We ran it against the brothers and got a ninety-nine percent match to one of them." Beckett finished with a satisfied sigh.

"Do we have him in custody?" Castle asked, looking towards the interrogation room.

"LT is dragging his sorry ass to the box as we speak." Beckett pointed to the elevator as LT dragged a struggling man to interrogation. They headed over to the room to begin what they hoped was the end of a long tough case.

Beckett shut the door tightly after Castle and dropped the folder on the table, staring at the man as she took her seat. She opened up the file and spread out the test result pages across the table, making sure a photo of the body was among them to get the brother to open up.

"So, our investigators found a hair on the scene. At first they thought it was your little brother's since the DNA matched so much, turns out after they tested it among a sample of you and your other brother's DNA, it was a perfectly match to you. Care to explain?" Beckett looked up from the file to stare coldly at the suspect across from her, Castle narrowing is eyes at the man.

The man pursed his lips together before deciding to answer, "I ain't saying shit. You already questioned me and I told you everything." He crossed his arms and looked away from them, looking at the picture of his little brother's lifeless body from the corner of his eye.

"You're lying, we searched you're apartment and talked to more people around your building. They found the same cut of cocaine hiding under your mattress that was in his stomach and the neighbors even complained of late night shouting matches between the victim and you. What happened? Hmm? You find out that he was taking some of you product and selling it for the leaders? Taking over your measly job for the gang. Your own little twelve-year-old brother showing you up? Man that's gotta leave bad blood between family members." Castle taunted, his voice dropping lower with each accusation.

"Hey! Screw you guys! I loved my brother, we looked out for his scrawny ass. He was getting in too deep, moving up the ranks too fast. It was fishy! I tried asking a leader what was going on with him but they took me out back and beat on me for good measure, going on about how gang blood ran even deeper than family blood. They warned me that if I asked again, I was gunna end up dead. They thought I was a snitch! Someone was talkin' to the cops cuz our lower level dealers were getting picked up every week! Yeah we fought, I confronted him on him being the possible snitch and we got into it, we punched a few times and one of my hairs must of gotten on his as we wrestled, and he stormed out. A few hours later he was dead." He croaked out, his hands starting to tremble, slowly grabbing the old school photo of his brother from the file and staring at it.

"Was he the snitch? Did the leaders find out?" Beckett prodded, they were getting the break they needed.

He tore his eyes away from the photo, "Maybe? About two weeks ago I followed my brother to a drug deal one day, just makin' sure he was cool. But he got into a black car and quickly spoke to some guy and left a minute later. We hate this life, we do it just to keep food on the table, keep the boy in school, but times got harder so he came in with us, I didn't know he was gunna die." He just confirmed what the task force had told them, the little brother was an informant. He was breaking, that much closer to a name.

"Give us a name and we can put this guy away from murdering your younger brother." Castle guided carefully, knowing if he pushed too hard, it was all over.

"No way man! If they find out I said so much to the cops, I'd be dead within the hour!" He panicked, his hands trembling the picture in his grip.

"We can place you and your brother in witness protection, but first we need the name, and your little brother's death won't be for nothing." Beckett negotiated, the final stretch.

"Rat out the leader? That's suicide man. We both would end up dead." He shook his head.

"Think about it, if your brother said he was the snitch while they beat and stabbed him to death, what's to stop them from thinking that you or your other brother are snitches as well. Just tell us and you won't have to worry about it ever again." Castle persuaded.

Lightning crackled and thunder sounded outside through the interrogation window as the man rubbed his hands together, cursing under his breath as he steeled himself before giving up the name. They had cracked the case.

_**A/N: I hope this wasn't OOC. Remember first Castle fic, so reviews and feedback are appreciated, thanks!**_


End file.
